LOS ANGELES (AP) --
Get ready for a little bit more pain at the pump this summer.

Crude oil prices
are at the highest level in more than three years and expected to climb
higher, pushing up gasoline prices along the way.

The U.S. daily
national average for regular gasoline is now $2.81 per gallon. That’s up
from about $2.39 per gallon a year ago, according to Oil Price Information
Service. And across the U.S., 13 percent of gas stations are charging $3 per
gallon or more, AAA said last week.

“This will be the
most expensive driving season since 2014,” said Tom Kloza, global head of
energy analysis for Oil Price Information Service.

The price of U.S.
crude oil has been on a mostly steady incline since last June and last week
hit $68.64, the highest since December 2014. Benchmark U.S. crude closed
Friday at $68.10. Oil prices near $70 shouldn’t put the brakes on economic
growth, however. While they’re boosting costs for some sectors of the
economy, the energy sector and related industries have more money to spend
on equipment and workers.

But higher oil
prices are certainly an inconvenience for drivers, especially those with
lower incomes.

“The good news is,
both at the global level and the U.S. level, this is occurring at a time
when growth is fairly robust,” said Nariman Behravesh, chief economist at
IHS Markit. “But consumers as whole will be hurt, mostly because gasoline
prices are going up.”

Kevin Lanke, a
motion picture lighting technician in Redondo Beach, California, says he’s
now paying about $3.39 per gallon to fill up the 25-gallon tank in his 2000
Land Cruiser SUV. That’s about 20 cents more per gallon than a couple of
months ago.

“I would fill up my
car and it would be $52 or $53,” said Lanke, 51. “Now it’s in the mid $60s
for the same amount of gas.”

Lanke keeps the
recent increase in perspective, noting that three years ago he and his
fellow Californians were paying over $4 per gallon. But he’s already
weighing his options, saying if gas goes to $4 a gallon he’ll buy a more
fuel-efficient car to use as his main ride and drive the Land Cruiser only
when he needs it.

Several factors
have helped drive oil prices higher. A wave of global economic growth has
driven up demand for oil. At the same time, production cutbacks initiated by
OPEC last year have helped whittle down oil supplies.

In the U.S., oil
supplies were running 1.1 million barrels lower at the start of this
summer’s driving season, which runs from April through September, than a
year ago, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

That has amplified
the typical increase in gas prices seen this time of year. Pump prices
normally rise as demand increases from families going on vacation and taking
to the highways on road trips. Already, U.S. consumer demand for gasoline
hit a record high for the month of April, according to the EIA.

Drivers in Western
states such as California, Oregon, Washington, as well as Alaska, Hawaii,
Connecticut and Pennsylvania, are paying the most at the pump. The average
retail price in those states is running from $2.95 to $3.61 per gallon.

Average retail
gasoline prices are lowest in a swath of mostly East Coast states, including
Florida, New Hampshire, Delaware and Georgia. They’re ranging from $2.68 to
$2.80 per gallon.

Still, prices
remain well off from 2008, when crude oil prices jumped above $130 per
barrel and average retail gas prices surged to an all-time high of $4.11 per
gallon.

“People forget
very, very quickly,” Kloza said, noting that the average U.S. gasoline price
remains well below where they stood five years ago at $3.60 per gallon.

"We’re seeing a
higher price environment... but I don’t think we’re goig to look at really
apocalyptic numbers,” he said.

The EIA projects
that the U.S. retail price for regular gasoline will average $2.74 per
gallon this summer, up from an average of $2.41 per gallon a year earlier.
Gas prices to rise each spring through Memorial Day and slowly decline as
the summer goes along.

For all of 2018,
the agency expects that the national retail price for all grades of gasoline
will average $2.76 a gallon. That would translate into an additional $190
spent on fuel by the average U.S. household this year compared to last, the
agency said.

“At the higher
income levels, this won’t really have much of an effect,” said Behravesh.
“But it’s a bigger deal for lower-income families, because a bigger share of
their budgets goes to things like gasoline.”

In broader economic
terms, the rise in oil and gasoline prices will help crude producers in
states like Texas and North Dakota and will likely boost capital spending
industrywide. Spending by oil companies fell sharply as oil plunged below
$30 a barrel in 2016, dragging on U.S. economic growth.

Industries that
rely heavily on fuel, such as shipping companies, airlines, vehicle fleet
operators and other transportation companies, are seeing rising costs, which
eventually will be passed on to consumers. Diesel fuel hit its highest
national average price in more than three years over the weekend at about
$3.06 per gallon. American Airlines said it spent $412 million more on fuel
in the recent first quarter than in the year-ago period.

At current levels,
U.S. crude oil prices won’t noticeably hamper the economy, said Behravesh.

“You would have to
get up into the $90-$100 range for it to really have a big impact on
growth,” he said. “At these levels, it may shave off a tenth of a percentage
point off global growth.”

One reason oil
likely won’t get to that level is the emergence of the U.S. as a major
global oil producer. Higher prices encourage U.S. oil companies to crank up
output.